Work

Kekulé spiral order from strained topological heavy fermions

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The ground state of twisted bilayer graphene across much of its phase diagram is now understood to be the incommensurate Kekul\'e spiral (IKS). Using parent-state wavefunctions in the strained topological heavy-fermion model, the authors demonstrate here that the energetic stability of this state can be understood from ${C}_{2}$\ensuremath{\mathcal{T}}-protected non-Abelian Dirac node braiding. This gives a topological interpretation to the energetic favorability of the IKS.

Source: Physical review. B./Physical review. B

DOI: 10.1103/rr5g-3js8

Authors: Jonah Herzog-Arbeitman, Dumitru Călugăru, Haoyu Hu, Jiabin Yu, Nicolas Regnault, Jian Kang, B. Andrei Bernevig, Oskar Vafek

Institutions: Princeton University, University of Oxford, Donostia International Physics Center, University of Florida, École Normale Supérieure - PSL, Flatiron Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Ikerbasque, Florida State University, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory

Language: English

Topic: Topological Materials and Phenomena

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Simons Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, European Research Council, Office of Naval Research

Awards: Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Theory Center, G5096419125, Predicting Zero-Magnetic-Field Fractional Topological States in Twisted Graphene Systems, G6180380485, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Renewal 2023-2027, NEW TOPOLOGICAL FRONTIER, G8012107029

OpenAlex ID: W4414258587

FWCI: 3.363

Cites: 241

Cited by: 9

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